connections - photographic projects

Inspiration

Photography has accompanied my inspirations since the beginning of my artistic career.
Nevertheless it was never exposed, aware that I am not a photographer in the classical sense.
Our modern time on the other hand has changed the deal, everyone has become witness of our time with
with digital photography and social networks.

Two projects were born with the help of photography:

"sky" a mixture between drawing and collage of photographs (landscapes)

"à fleur de peau" a documentation of the skin over the years, created and continued since
the confinement and the pandemic 2020

(Prize for the digital work during the competition of kun:st international 2021 Stuttgart Germany)

A FLEUR DE PEAU photographic project Nina Urlichs

"Skin-deep" has different meanings: It can mean "skin-deep drama", "skin-deep emotions". This expression is like an image: it is used to describe an extreme nervous sensitivity, giving the subject the impression of having the nerves exposed to the surface of the skin, and thus of experiencing a cutaneous reaction to the least solicitation.

This photographic series "A fleur de peau" was created during the 2020 covid quarantine. The extreme anxiety about our future, our health and the resulting uncertainties have caused many skin reactions and skin diseases in my entourage and in the general population. I myself have felt a tingling sensation under my skin for days, expressing moments of stress in my cells, moments of stress, which I did not really realize myself. This sensation led me to work on it and then to review and rework my photographic archives. For years I have been taking pictures of natural or artificial structures, showing surfaces of walls and ceilings, plants, trees and bark, or skies, with an uneven and interesting surface in color. Especially if they remind of the skin and the sensation of touch. The series "A fleur de peau - rose" and primary in this color pink and fuchsia, a color that normally expresses a softness, sweetness and femininity. But here the pink also takes on a note of chemistry, of the artificial and shows here a direction towards the covid, depicting our battalion of chemistry, disinfectants etc., in our fight against the virus.

The new photographs explore the human, a theme that is dear to me. Often the photos are reworked in digital with overlays. These line plays, works and drawings on the transparent, translucent and opaque, work together to highlight or add details of faces and hand gestures. The surface of the works is made of paper manufactured in France. This paper has a very soft structure and underlines the image of a skin, with the desire to touch it: à fleur de peau - touching the skin.